CAN Adapters

ID #1077

Do I have to create a program using your DLL to connect to my CAN bus device?

In Windows there is no device class for CAN bus. As a consequence hardware manufacturers have to create their own driver and software interface to access the CAN bus by their adapters. As inconvenient result programmers can not use a standard API, they have to adapt their applications to the certain model of CAN bus adapter used.

VSCAN adapters like USB-CAN and NET-CAN provide a library with a set of functions for access. This library is available for some common operating systems, it is a DLL in Windows. An application must be programmed to use this VSCAN library. BUSMASTER is a professional Open Source CAN monitoring tool, that uses our DLL to access the whole VSCAN devices family.

The VSCAN adapters provide a second way of control, this is the ASCII command set. For simple tests users may use this method in terminal emulation software (Hyperterminal in Windows). There are other applications which already implement this command set. The shareware monitoring tool named CANHacker is one such example. Users may use this software to test communication with their CAN bus devices.

Existing applications use specialized APIs, as said above. These API come as a (set of) library/DLL, which is loaded by the application software. Doing this the application can use the functions implemented in the API.
In many situations it is possible to create another DLL, which mimics the given API. This will provide the defined functions, but implements them by using the VSCAN API. Such a library is called a Mapper, it allows to replace one manufacturers hardware by a VSCAN device.
Mapper libraries for certain manufacturer models are implemented on special demand.

 

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Last update: 2015-10-30 15:47
Author: Support
Revision: 1.1

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